Hello, all. I'm on my break before the degree starts in September (hopefully - still waiting for student loan to be processed). I've started a new wave of reading. I recently finished Unweaving the Rainbow by Prof. Dawkins, then Letters to a Young Scientist by Prof. Wilson. Yesterday I picked up The Social Conquest of Earth by Wilson having enjoyed the latter book and his writing style. All within the space of about two weeks.
Another recent development is I've been thinking about focusing in on another biological/ecological domain, that of the insects. In terms of animals for me it was always the characteristic megafauna, mammals such as Siberian tigers and Eurasian wolves, but as I've studied ecology over the past 2 years (and for the many years on my own before starting college) I've gradually become a more and more fascinated in the little guys, the ones that do all the work. I'm the sort of person that likes to focus on a particular thing. Botany was, and still is, that thing. Although, of course, I find all of biological diversity intrinsically interesting (who wouldn't?). I find that I just gravitate towards certain things.
I was never really intensely interested in insects, although I appreciated their role in ecology. In these last few days, probably after I read E O Wilson and caught his infectious enthusiasm for ants, something just clicked in my mind that I really should spend time understanding insect ecology, their life histories and evolutionary chronologies. I just like the idea of gravitating to one or two things and focusing on them (as well as absorbing other information) so that I can understand them in more detail as opposed to just broad swathes all the time. It's like nailing one's colours to the mast, I suppose. It makes sense, the flowering plants co-evolved with insects about 65 million years ago during the late Cretaceous. Plants and insects literally go together. I could extend this to all terrestrial arthropods, but I'm not so keen on arachnids for some reason, although that doesn't mean they aren't equally as interesting. Myriapods are interesting though.
I feel like insects are a new and exciting realm for me. I know what they do in terms of broad ecological processes and principles, but I've never really sat down and said, "right, I'm going to focus on the insecta and just learn more about them for curiosity's sake", that sort of thing. We'll see how it goes.
Taylor.
